međuslavenska zajednica

8. adjectives

Neoslavonicadjectivesare formedby addingendings(and sometimes also prefixes) to other words. They are inflected and have three genders in singular (plural is only one for all genders). Words are palatalized during adding these endings (e.g. k→č, h→š, g→ž).

The most usedendings (in the order m. f. n. pl.) are:

-sky, -ska, -ske, -ski. This is the most used ending aimed for general use.

example: Rus, russky = Russian (noun), Russian (adj.)

-ij, -ija, -ije, -iji. This expresses some origin, in the way of meaning "ot + genitive" = "from somebody/something".

Of course, these endings can be combined as for example: petrovska orchestra (-ov + -ska) etc.

declension

LiveSlaviclanguages​​mostly usetwo patterns for theinflectionof adjectives.Soft pattern andhard pattern. These patterns are very similar to thesoftand hardpatternsof pronoun inflection. In Neoslavonic it isvery simplified in order to use only onepattern identical with the soft pronoun pattern.This simplification is possible, because allthese declension patternsare mutually very similarand differ onlyin very details of vowels.

Of course, because the hard and soft patternvaries from each other only in vowels alterations, there is no problemto optionally use both declension patterns. To reminder, the vowels o and ie from the hard pronoun pattern corresponds to the vowels e and i in the soft pronoun pattern. (e.g. o↔e and ie↔i).For example: dobr-ego↔dobr-ogo, ...

example 1: dobry = good

masculine

feminine

neuter

plural

nominative

dobr-y

dobr-a

dobr-e

dobr-i

genitive

dobr-ego

dobr-ej

dobr-ego

dobr-ih

dative

dobr-emu

dobr-ej

dobr-emu

dobr-im

accusative

dobr-ego

dobr-u

dobr-e

dobr-e

vocative

dobr-y

dobr-a

dobr-e

dobr-i

locative

dobr-em

dobr-ej

dobr-em

dobr-ih

instrumental

dobr-im

dobr-ej

dobr-im

dobr-imi

example 2: sviežy = fresh

masculine

feminine

neuter

plural

nominative

sviež-y

sviež-a

sviež-e

sviež-i

genitive

sviež-ego

sviež-ej

sviež-ego

sviež-ih

dative

sviež-emu

sviež-ej

sviež-emu

sviež-im

accusative

sviež-ego

sviež-u

sviež-e

sviež-e

vocative

sviež-y

sviež-a

sviež-e

sviež-i

locative

sviež-em

sviež-ej

sviež-em

sviež-ih

instrumental

sviež-im

sviež-ej

sviež-im

sviež-imi

gradationAdjectiveshave the same system of gradation as inEnglishin threestages: indicative, comparative and superlative. Moreover in addition,there is the augmentative as the possibility to amplify the property in indicative.

indicative
This is the standard form of an adjective.

example: dragy, sviežy = dear, fresh.

comparative
This the higher level of property made by endings -iejšy, -iejša, -iejše, -iejši or-ejšy, -ejša, -ejše, -ejši after palatalized consonants č, š, ž. When comparing, the genitive case and the prepositionot = from is used.

example: sviežejšy ot togo = fresher (more fresh) than this.

superlative
This the absolute level of property made by prefix naj- added to the comparative form. When comparing, the genitive case and the prepositioniz = from is used.

example: najdražejšy iz vsih ljudij = the most dear/valuable from all people.

augmentative
This is the augmented form of the indicative made by prefix naj- added to the indicative form. It is usedfor example ina respectfulsalutation.

example: najdragy gospodi! = (very) dear Sir!

descriptive gradation

Likein Englishwe canalso usedescriptive gradation.Unlike English, however,the basic form of gradation is applicable to allkinds of adjectives.Thisdescriptive gradation is made by adding adverbsvyše, najvyše (higher, the highest) or bolje, najbolje (bigger, the biggest).Bothhaveexactly the samemeaning as "more, the most" in English. The augmentative can be expressed using the adverb mnogo (much, many, a lot of, plenty of).

example:

dragy

dražejšy = vyše dragy = bolje dragy

najdražejšy = najvyše dragy = najbolje dragy

najdragy = mnogo dragy

irregular gradation

Although Neoslavonic is an artificiallanguage, itcan not exist withoutirregularadjectives.They arepresent in allSlaviclanguages.The Neoslavonic has onlyfive of them: